I know Yorkshire’s biggest city well, having grown up in nearby Huddersfield.

It was my shopping paradise as a teenager.

Alamy

Grand . . . Victoria Quarter Shopping Arcade

But over the past few years, investment in the already charming city has seen Leeds named the Rough Guide To Britain’s best shopping destination in the UK.

I started my weekend at Leeds’ most treasured arcade, the Victoria Quarter.

Harvey Nichols and Vivienne Westwood were well out of my price range growing up . . . and they still are, sadly.

But the arcade is worth a visit either way for its beautiful marble floors, mahogany shop fronts and stained-glass ceilings.

And I can stretch to a coffee at Pret or Le Pain Quotidien.

Next, I headed over to Queens Arcade, a collection of Victorian passageways dotted with one-off boutiques. These little shops are a feast for the eyes and crammed full of unusual delights.

Aladdin’s Cave is full of vintage jewellery, Mary Shortle specialises in dolls, OK Comics is a collector’s heaven and Tall Boys Beer Market has dozens of craft ales.

For lunch, it was Cielo Blanco inside the cleverly designed Trinity Leeds — a new 120-store shopping centre that weaves through the city, linking big stores such as Topshop and Marks & Spencer while sheltering shoppers with a giant glass dome roof.

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Cielo Blanco offers a “Mexican social eating concept”. In other words, enormous sharing platters of tacos, meat and guacamole. Delicious.

I was stuffed as I plodded around the rest of the Trinity.
When I was all shopped-out, I decided to sneak a peek at the Victoria Gate redevelopment next to to
Victoria Quarter. It will house stores including John Lewis.

It opens later this month, so I will have to save up some pennies for another trip in December.

That will give me an excuse to pop to the German Christmas market for a glass of gluhwein.

I finished off my busy day with a pint in Whitelock’s — at the ripe old age of 301, the city’s oldest pub.

It is located just off the main shopping street of Briggate.

Thankfully, my hotel, The Met, was just five minutes’ walk away so I nipped back there to freshen up before heading out to The Botanist, a rustic pub, for dinner.